


In Which Time Travel Did Not Help (A Sephiroth Story)

by Barid (Finale)



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Cid Highwind makes a cameo appearance, Gen, In which we should realize my sense of humor is weird, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-19 04:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29620623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finale/pseuds/Barid
Summary: It's the perfect plan. Sephiroth knows this; at one point he worked for Shinra and was high ranking within it, and in a position over Cloud. That if he goes back in time he can take advantage of this, and make sure to get his puppet on his side before he's a threat.Unfortunately, the disadvantage of hyperfixating on Cloud to the point of losing the majority of his 'pre-meeting Cloud Strife' memories is, well, he sort of needs those memories at the moment.But that'll still be fine.Right?
Relationships: Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos, Claudia Strife & Vincent Valentine, Genesis Rhapsodos & Cloud Strife, Rufus Shinra & Cloud Strife, Sephiroth/Cloud Strife, Vincent Valentine/Claudia Strife
Comments: 98
Kudos: 244





	1. Time Travel Is Not Always The Answer

Sephiroth rolls his shoulders and opens his eyes. The room is not familiar to him, though he knows it must have once been.There are a few picture frames on bookshelves with two men, but he can’t be bothered to try and remember them. He assumes he must have once been somewhat close to them, but they no longer matter.

They aren’t Cloud Strife, and Cloud Strife and Mother are the only ones who matter. 

Fortunately there is a laptop on a desk and Masamune resting on a sword rack. The only misfortune of focusing so much on his puppet while in the Lifestream is that his memories of his life at Shinra are all but non-existent. The laptop should be able to give him at least some information, and should be able to help him locate his puppet. He thinks he had been high ranking when at Shinra which should give him access to who works at the company.

His Mother is likely not in it, though he can’t recall why that is. It doesn’t truly matter, because Reunion will always guide him to her. It’s just a pity that his puppet hadn’t given his or Mother’s cells yet, making it impossible for him to use Reunion to call Cloud to him. That would simplify things and allow him to leave Midgar within the day. 

He sits down and his eyebrow twitches slightly at the computer’s request for a password.

Ah. That could be a minor issue. 

How does he reset that…

* * *

Alright. At the present his puppet is barely fifteen and in the Infantry. He’s failed the SOLDIER exam three times for reasons that seem to be more due to mental health issues than physical fitness. That isn’t exactly much of a surprise...the unfortunate detail is Cloud’s age. He had forgotten just how much  _ younger _ than him Cloud happened to be. From checking his own record, at the present he should be twenty one and Shinra’s SOLDIER General. 

Though the additional issue of how to give his Cloud his enhancements remains since he can’t really remember how Strife got them in the first place. Maybe repeated transfusions of his blood would work? And once he reached Mother some of her’s? Since handing him over to Science feels wrong. And completely enraging for reasons he can no longer remember, beyond a general desire to slaughter them all.

He should probably get on _ that  _ if nothing else.

He frowns up at his office ceiling, resisting the urge to glare at it as he thinks. He feels like he should know where Mother is. The location feels like it’s on the tip of his tongue, but Reunion doesn’t seem to be in effect. Then again, up until his first resurrection he hadn’t been able to use Reunion on anything...Well he also hadn’t exactly  _ needed _ to use Reunion for anything either.

...Why does he feel like he could have used Reunion on something here? Just didn’t know how to?

Whatever. He doesn’t need Reunion to find his puppet. 

He can just access his Cloud’s records.

* * *

Cloud opens his eyes and sees the almost relieving sight of his former barrack’s ceiling. It’s a sight he hasn’t seen in almost fifteen years, and one that fifteen years ago he’d be borderline depressed seeing, but now is a relief. 

Seeing it meant that he’d successfully sent himself back to the past. Somehow. 

Gaia itself had some sort of hand in it, but not the only hand in it. He’d definitely gotten a sense of something that was both other and familiar, and it’s going to bother him until he can figure it out. Especially since it weirdly enough made him think of his  _ Ma _ . 

In hindsight there’s a lot of questions he should have asked his Ma and never did, like who he Da was, and who his grandparents were. Well now that he’s back in time he can do that...she’s still alive now. 

That makes him grin.  _ His Ma is alive _ . His Ma is alive and he needs to make sure she stays that way.

He isn’t entirely sure how, but he’ll figure out a way.

* * *

He’d known there was a very high chance that the Sephiroth of his time period would be in the past. After all, the entire point of him going back in time was to stop Sephiroth from destroying the Planet. Now he knows for sure Sephiroth, _ his  _ Sephiroth, is also in the past. Since. Well. Sephiroth is being Sephiroth. 

_ He had not realized that Sephiroth would have no issue with being himself towards him while he looks underage _ .

Thankfully, other people seem to take issue with that. 

Like Commander Rhapsodos.

Commander Rhapsodos, who is perfectly fine with letting him hide behind him. Thank Freyr the man is taller and slightly broader than him.

“Sephiroth, what the hell is wrong with you?!” Commander Rhapsodos demands. “Why are you bothering a trooper?” 

Cloud can tell he wants to add,  _ an underage one at that _ , but suspects Rhapsodos won’t since he doesn’t exactly know his age. For all Rhapsodos knew he could just be a very babyfaced eighteen year old.

In a weird way he’s technically a very babyfaced thirty year old due to time travel and being shoved into his fifteen year old body, but that’s a different issue. Sephiroth is arguably a thirty six year old suffering from delusions of godhood and severe mommy issues instead of a twenty something year old pretty Shinra poster boy.

“I just need to speak with Trooper Strife,” Sephiroth says and nope. Cloud does not want to have any sort of conversation with him. Not when the first thing he’d done was do the creepy shoulder touch thingy and called him ‘puppet’.

“Would this talk be something I’d need to warn HR about?” Rhapsodos snarks, continuing to keep himself between Sephiroth and Cloud. Cloud can't help but be grateful to that. “Or alert Angeal to?” Cloud thinks he can see fire flickering slightly in Rhapsodos’s hand. He feels like he has a vague memory that Shinra’s Red Commander had been known for his use of fire materia.

And for throwing fireballs at people who’ve annoyed him.

“Out of my way,” Sephiroth orders.

“Not until you explain why you need to talk about anything with a trooper,” Rhapsodos says. “Especially after touching him like that.”

Technically touching someone on the shoulder isn’t that weird. The fact Sephiroth is radiating his standard creepy energy towards him and calling him ‘puppet’ is probably what’s making it weird.

Which, with him technically being fifteen again is going to cause a lot of issues and raise a lot of eyebrows.

Cloud misses whatever Sephiroth says next, only that Commander Rhapsodos flicks a fireball into his hand.

“I’m going to be blunt. Back off now Sephiroth or else I’m getting Angeal involved at minimum, and probably Lazard as well.”

Sephiroth just narrows his eyes at Commander Rhapsodos, but apparently the threat of a fireball, possibly getting Commander Hewley involved, and whoever Lazard is involved, is enough to get Sephiroth to back off. 

Thank Freyr.

“Thank you Sir,” Cloud says, not entirely sure what to do now. His rounds? Does he have class today? Honestly, he can’t remember. He’d forgotten to check his schedule before leaving the barracks and why are his hands shaking, Sephiroth has been like this to him before!?

Commander Rhapsodos studies him thoughtfully. “Trooper Strife, just how old are you?”

“Fifteen Sir,” he says, tilting his head slightly in a way Zack once told him made him think of a kitten. “Why?”

“Goddess’s sake Sephiroth,” Commander Rhapsodos grumbles instead, rubbing at his forehead. “Alright, you’re coming with me. I’ll alert your squad leader, but in light of this I’m a bit leery of leaving you somewhere where Sephiroth may be able to have access to you, and with people who haven’t witnessed, well,  _ that _ .” He grimaces. 

Cloud gives Rhapsodos a wary look, making the man grimace more. Obviously it hadn’t occurred to him how that could come across especially after that. Like Cloud didn’t really have any worries that it would be like that, but he shouldn’t go anywhere with another SOLDIER right after being arguably sexually harassed by their leader. 

“I have a boyfriend and you are much, much too young for my interest Strife,” Rhapsodos says. He looks thoughtfully at him. “How about this? I’ll request Second Class Fair to join us. He’s only a couple of years older than you. You may have even met him before, I know he does some training with troopers.”

Cloud honestly can’t remember if Modeoheim had been the first time he’d met Zack or not, and since Commanders Rhapsodos and Hewley are still around it has to be at least a few days before the men and half of SOLDIER will defect. 

“Okay,” Cloud says slowly. It’s still probably safer than doing whatever it is he’s supposed to do and possibly get grabbed by Sephiroth. “I don’t remember if I have, but that should be okay.” 

And hopefully between Commander Rhapsodos and Zack, Sephiroth could at least be slowed down.

* * *

“I’m sorry Sephiroth was  _ what _ ?” Angeal gapes at Genesis, and then glances over at the fifteen year old dozing on his boyfriend’s office couch, head on Zack’s thigh. Zack is asleep as well, head tilted back in a way Genesis knows Zack will regret when he wakes up. 

“Harassing Trooper Strife, who is underage by Midgar standards,” Genesis repeats. “And while normally I’d assume it’s just him being socially stunted, Sephiroth isn’t exactly known for getting touchy feely even with  _ us _ , let alone some fifteen year old I don’t think he’s ever met before. And whatever he said to Strife, which I couldn't quite hear, seemed to freak him out as well.”

Angeal looks as disturbed as Genesis feels. They’d never had any indication before that Sephiroth may be like  _ that, _ but now based on how he acted towards Strife, Genesis has Concerns. Concerns that he suspects Angeal also now has. 

“Now, I’m going to push through paperwork with Lazard to allow me to take on Strife as an apprentice, since that will also allow me to put him up in my spare bedroom,” he adds. “That way we don’t have to worry about Strife ‘vanishing’ from the barracks, which I think is now a concern, or at least now is a concern for  _ me _ .”

“Yeah…” Angeal grimaces. “Also,  _ can _ you apprentice a trooper?” 

“I can if he has an aptitude for materia and has a history of taking the SOLDIER exams,” Genesis says. “He’s technically been failing due to mental health reasons, but said mental health reasons sound suspiciously like isolation and bullying issues. Also possibly touch starvation which...further worries me in terms of Strife and Sephiroth interacting. I’ll send him to a therapist, which frankly should be done anyway. He does have ridiculously high materia scores, which I’m surprised hasn’t been brought to mine or Eanna’s attention.”

Angeal narrows his eyes. “That doesn’t make any sense. Since when can candidates fail for  _ mental health _ reasons? We’d honestly lose a good third of SOLDIER if that was an actual restriction.”

“Oh good, I’m not the only one to find that suspicious as well,” Genesis drawls. “Between that and how neither Eanna or I have been told about his materia scores, that means  _ something  _ is going on. I want to take a look at what type of missions he’s done as a trooper as well. Since even if they were keeping him out of SOLDIER for mental health reasons and maybe a concern of the enhancements aggravating it, there’s no reason _ Eanna  _ shouldn’t have been told, especially if he got sent to Infantry instead. As is, if I don’t get approval, I’ll reach out to Eanna and have her specifically apprentice him and move him into her and her wife’s apartment. Honestly I was almost tempted to just do that anyway since they live off-site.”

“What are you checking specifically in his missions?” Angeal asks. 

“If he’s been doing easy, regular, or hard missions,” Genesis says. “And I suspect the answer will be ‘easy’.”

“Oh?”

“Well, who does Strife look an awful lot like?”

Angeal studies the teen and...

“Ah. Shit.”

“Yes. I’d imagine even  _ he’d  _ not want his own child in the possible hands of Science thus explaining him not being allowed in SOLDIER, and since Strife came to work for the company rather than asked for child support or something like that, he would possibly get easy missions instead of potentially painful death.”

“...What.”

“Let’s leave it that Lazard is an anomaly and now Strife may be too, and it’s in part because no one’s been asking for any sort of support.”

“Why do you even  _ know  _ that?”

“Because unlike you, I pay attention to gossip. And Lazard while drunk.”

“...Genesis please do not spy on our boss while he’s drunk.”

“It is not spying when he’s drunk and bitching in part because Rufus is being a prat.”

“ _ Genesis _ .”

* * *

Lazard stares silently at the request in front of him from Genesis, along with the report concerning Sephiroth’s, well,  _ concerning  _ actions as directed towards Cloud Strife. That sort of interest from an adult towards a teen reminds him of things his mother had warned him of when he lived in the slums. And makes him immediately willing to throw Sephiroth’s similar request in the trash. That’s something Genesis wouldn’t lie about; the report sounded like the man was too disturbed for it to be some weird aspect of their rivalry.

However what is more confusing is  _ Rufus’s _ request for custody of Strife based on  _ familial grounds _ . Did they have a younger brother? How would Rufus even  _ know _ this already? Are the Turks only telling Rufus things again and no one else?

Sometimes he’s jealous of how loyal they are to Rufus when compared to SOLDIER and himself. He’d briefly toyed with the idea of using SOLDIER in the past to take over the company and immediately abandoned the idea. It’s not so much that SOLDIER is particularly loyal to the company, but they are loyal to the Trinity. And at the end of the day they’re about as loyal to him as they are to anyone in the company not a SOLDIER. 

Still...he grabs his phone and taps in Rufus’s number. It rings once. 

“He’s our nephew, not our brother,” Rufus says, not even letting him get the question out. 

“I’m sorry what?” Lazard says, leaning back in his chair. 

“We have an older sister, one Claudia  _ Strife _ . Up until I was born apparently she was the company heir and still is in line after me,” he adds. “Her son Cloud is technically in line after her. The only reason our Father hasn’t yanked him out of the Infantry is because Claudia’s status as the oldest Shinra child is  _ not _ known, and giving Cloud some managerial job after applying for SOLDIER would make it obvious there’s something going on with him.”

“We have an older sister,” Lazard says flatly, ignoring the fact that Rufus technically shouldn’t even know they’re related. He’d never said anything, but then again, the Turks likely ran DNA tests on everyone who worked in the company. “And even though it sounds like she’s illegitimate, she’s still in line to inherit the company?”  _ Seriously _ ?

“Yeah. Which has always confused me since she grew up in poverty and so did Cloud but apparently there was some sort of agreement with Skye Strife, Claudia Strife’s mother.”

Lazard stares incredulously at his phone, since that sounds an awful lot like their father had offered someone child support. Their father, who had literally had people  _ shot _ for trying to get money out of him on the basis of being his child.  _ And it had been rejected _ .

“Don’t think too hard about it, I know it’s confusing,” Rufus says after he doesn’t respond for a good thirty seconds. “But it’s how it is. Inheritance goes me, Claudia, Cloud, and then you.”

“Wait what?”

“You...you  _ do _ realize our Father’s been aware you’re one of his bastard sons since like, a week after you were hired right? That’s how you made Director so quickly. And since you’ve shown yourself to be competent, you ended up in line to potentially inherit if something went ridiculously wrong and me, Claudia, and Cloud ended up dying.”

Lazard rubs at the bridge of his nose. 

He’d always planned on if he did do a hostile takeover claiming he deserved the President’s position on the basis of being older than Rufus. Claudia’s existence would ruin that argument, since by that logic  _ she _ should have the company. She’s even mentioned in the will as getting the position of second heir due to being the oldest illegitimate child.

On the other hand, she’s never worked for Shinra so maybe…

“Why didn’t she ever work at the company?” he asks, honestly confused by the woman who’s apparently their sister and was willing to live in poverty rather than try to claim anything from their father. 

“Didn’t want to,” Rufus says, and he can all but hear Rufus shrugging. “That’s what Father said and seeing as he seemed kind of annoyed at the fact... There also seems to have been... _ something _ involving Skye Strife according to Veld when I asked about it, but he wouldn’t go into detail. Possibly pride on both Claudia and her mother’s side of things between not accepting child support or working at the company thing.”

Something then occurs to Lazard. 

“Why  _ are _ you asking for custody of Strife? He’s been here for a year, and if the President left him in Infantry to avoid someone realizing Strife’s his grandson…”

“Sephiroth’s actions towards him,” Rufus says, and Lazard can almost sense something tightly controlled in his younger brother. Possibly rage. “I am  _ not _ allowing our nephew to be in a position where Sephiroth can get easy access to him, and the barracks are easy access.”

“How did you hear about that?” 

“Really?” Rufus asks flatly.

…Alright, that was a stupid question, since.  _ Turks _ . 

“Commander Rhapsodos is requesting to apprentice Strife and move him into his apartment. He’s the one who alerted me to the situation at hand as well, apparently very disturbed by Sephiroth’s actions,” Lazard says, tapping his fingers against his desk. “Wouldn’t letting Strife move in there be a good method of making sure he’s protected from Sephiroth, along with keep it hidden that he’s the President’s grandson?”

“At this point it’s safer for our relationship to the Strifes to be public knowledge. Father has agreed with me on that, you aren’t actually the first call that’s been made,” Rufus says. “It’s fine for Rhapsodos to apprentice him, and based on Cloud’s materia scores even justifiable. I’ll ‘handle’ our Father if he complains about Cloud eventually joining SOLDIER, and if our  _ sister _ has an issue with it I’ll suggest he go into the Materia Specialists under Eanna’s command.”

“That should work,” Lazard says slowly. 

“I know. So let’s set it up and be on our way.”

* * *

“I’m sorry, who is getting who?” Genesis asks, already on his phone to demand answers from Lazard upon his application’s partial rejection. 

“Rufus is being granted custody of Trooper Cloud Strife for the time being,” Lazard says patiently, “due to familial relations. Strife is apparently the President’s grandson and thus Rufus’s nephew. He apparently caught wind of the situation with Sephiroth and did not want him anywhere near Strife. I suspect that you and he shared a concern; Strife ‘vanishing’ from the Infantry barracks.

“On the other hand, your request for Strife to be your apprentice  _ has _ been approved. Rufus says he will ‘handle’ the matter with his Father if he has any complaints. I could actually hear the quotation marks in his voice when he said ‘handle’ which is...admittedly a bit ominous.”

Genesis blinks. 

“I’m sorry, the President made his grandson be in the Infantry?” His eyes narrow. “Wait, is that why Strife has been failing the SOLDIER exams based on mental health when we all know a good  _ third _ of SOLDIER would have failed if that was the case?” Including honestly Sephiroth and himself. Angeal was the only stable one of the three of them. 

“Yes. As you may have discovered when looking through Strife’s mission records, and don’t pretend you haven’t, I know you Rhapsodos, he’s always sent on easy missions. Things like guarding the villa in Costa del Sol. Per Rufus it’s been done to keep Strife alive and keep his status as the President’s grandson hidden.”

“Why would he  _ care _ ?” Genesis asks, genuinely mystified. “Everyone knows the President isn’t exactly a family man.”

“Because he’s in line to inherit the company, not that Strife is probably even aware of that,” Lazard says and  _ what _ ? “And apparently based on how Skye Strife, Trooper Strife’s grandmother is literally the only person who the President has ever offered child support to, though she turned it down, that implies there was  _ something _ more there.”

_...What the hell _ ?

“So to reiterate. Rufus has custody of Strife, but your mentorship has been approved, and how the hell it’s going to work with him becoming an actual SOLDIER is technically up in the air, though arguably he could easily transfer into the Materia Specialists if needed.”

No fair, _ if he trains someone he should get to keep them _ . 

“Now, from what you said earlier Strife is at your office. Tseng is on his way to pick Strife up and take him to Rufus’s apartment. Make sure he’s ready to go.”

* * *

Rufus bites back a sigh at the suspicious look Strife is giving him. It would make his life so much easier if Claudia had ever mentioned technically being a Shinra. He knows that his Father ignores the existence of the vast majority of his bastards, but Claudia Strife had been the one he’d acknowledged. And he knows she knows.

He has _ so  _ many questions about his Father’s former relationship with Skye Strife.  _ So many.  _

“Look, I’m your uncle, not someone interested in harassing you the way Sephiroth seems to be intent on,” Rufus finally says, exasperated. “Yes, I know we’re close in age, but your mother is also the oldest of my siblings. And had you young,” he adds. 

“What.” Strife asks flatly. 

“You’re my nephew,” Rufus says. “My Father and your grandmother had a relationship at some point about thirty four or so years ago. Your mother is the result of that. You are the result of a teen pregnancy. Do the math.”

Cloud blinks and looks very, very surprised. Which is admittedly an understandable reaction. He’d be very surprised too if he was told he was the illegitimate grandson of the most powerful man in the world. 

(Cloud suddenly has so many questions for the Rufus of his timeline. _So many_.)

* * *

Vincent Valentine wakes up to his coffin’s lid being moved and a woman who looks incredibly like Cloud staring at him. He blinks at her, not entirely sure how to react. Chaos had just sent him back almost fifteen years into the past in an effort to deal with Jenova and hopefully locate Cloud who he knew was also sent back.

The woman he can only assume is Cloud’s mother (he could swear Cloud once mentioning her name was Claudia) grins. Her eyes are as bright blue as her son’s.

The first thing she says is honestly something he should have expected out of a Strife.

“Do you want to commit arson?”

(Ah. So that’s where Cloud gets it)


	2. Family Matters

Vincent is relatively certain Cloud is going to _ kill him _ . Oh, first Cloud will certainly be pleased to see him and to realize he’s also from the future. That he has an ally to deal with anything Hojo, Jenova, or Sephiroth try to pull. 

Then Cloud will kill him for sleeping with his mother. 

Admittedly, not his wisest decision. Yes, Claudia Strife is a beautiful woman. Yes, Claudia Strife is a very interesting woman. Yes, Claudia Strife is a woman he just committed two major cases of arson with in only a week, which will hopefully stall out quite a few of Hojo and Sephiroth’s plots. On the other hand, finding a woman beautiful and interesting had gotten him shot, experimented on, and demons sealed inside of him in the past. 

Though he’d never committed arson with Lucrecia. 

Jenova and the mansion had both burned very, very nicely. 

“Stop thinking so much,” Claudia orders, looking up at him from where she’s sprawled over him. “It’ll be fine.”

“I’m relatively certain your son is going to kill me. Or your husband,” he adds, since didn’t Cloud once say his mother had been married? 

“Cloud’s Da has been out of my life for  _ years _ ,” she says, looking almost amused. “I wasn’t even actually married to him, just claimed that to avoid the village viewing me as a whore for having a child out of wedlock. And as for Cloud killing you, why would Cloud be killing you? You’re his friend aren’t you?”

“Well that’s for the exact...wait, how did you know that?” Vincent asks, realizing that he has said  _ nothing _ to her about being from the future, let alone being from the future and knowing her son. Even mentioning that she had a son and husband had been a slip up, since she’d made no reference to either in the past week. 

“Sometimes when you worship the Old Gods it helps,” she says, shrugging. 

“What does that even  _ mean _ ?”

“It means I can use seidr.”

“Explain this like I'm someone not from this area, because  _ I'm not from this area and have no clue what you just said.” _

“Seidr is an old form of non-materia magic that amongst other things allows for fortune telling and for shaping the future,” Claudia says, almost blandly and wait. Wait, is she implying what he  _ thinks _ she’s implying?

Then again, he had wondered how exactly Cloud had been able to send himself to the past...Was it Gaia or  _ this _ ?

“Don’t think too much about it,” Claudia says, patting him on the chest. “Think of other things,” she says, giving him a mischievous smile, kissing him, and Vincent knows he probably should  _ not. _

Then again, Cloud is probably already going to kill him, so why not?

* * *

Cloud does not know why he feels the sudden urge to throttle Vincent, but it probably isn’t important. Maybe it’s an urge triggered by how he _ knows  _ Vincent is asleep in his coffin up in Nibelheim, rather than here in Midgar murdering Hojo. Who also keeps apparently trying to schedule ‘appointments’ with him that Rufus is immediately canceling. 

His ‘uncle’ is looking more and more agitated each time it happens, and Genesis seems to be fiddling more and more with both his fire materia and with what Cloud  _ thinks  _ is the basic Bahamut summons. He’s only really known the Red Commander for a week, been his  _ apprentice  _ for a week, and already knows all the stories about how much of a pyro the man is and how the Bahamut summon is his favorite are  _ true _ .

Bahamut, followed by Phoenix, and then Ifrit. 

(Shiva apparently hated Genesis)

Speaking of fire, he really needs to get to Nibelheim to see his Ma, and to make sure the mansion and Jenova burn...

“Cloud, are you paying attention?” Genesis asks, looking at him over one of his many copies of Loveless, from which he’d been reading aloud. Cloud had to give him credit, the man had a very soothing voice for recitations. 

“ _ Yes, but also thinking about my Ma _ ,” Cloud says, unthinkingly in Old Nibel.

“...Cloud I have absolutely no idea what you just said,” Genesis says, looking almost amused. 

Huh. It’s been a while since he accidentally said something in Old Nibel instead of Common. Like, fifteen years a while. Sorta makes sense that it would happen now that he’s ‘fifteen’ again…

“Sorry. I said ‘yes, but also thinking about my Ma,’” Cloud repeats. 

“What language was that? It sounds like something I’ve heard from President Shinra and Rufus in the past?” Genesis puts down his book.

They could speak Old Nibel? Then again, if the President had had a relationship with his grandma it would make sense if he’d been living in Nibelheim at the time, and especially since the older generation only spoke Old Nibel. Though why he’d taught Rufus is a mystery. 

Maybe he’d taught Rufus swear words?

“Old Nibel. It’s not that widely spoken anymore, even in the mountains, but my Ma taught it to me and I didn’t even learn how to speak Common until I was five,” Cloud admits. 

“Huh. Interesting,” Genesis says, looking thoughtful. He opens his mouth, obviously ready to start back on his Loveless recitation.

“Can we go see how many training dummies I can blow up instead of you reciting Loveless?”

“You know, I’m not supposed to encourage you doing that.”

“So you don’t want to blow up the training dummies?”

“Oh, I never said that. Just that I’m not supposed to  _ encourage _ that.” 

“Well you’re not encouraging that. I’m asking if we can go do that.”

“That’s splitting the hair, but sure. It’ll be entertaining at least.”

(Less entertaining is a  _ very _ unamused Commander Eanna dumping a bunch of water on them and the dummies via her water materia when she sees what they’re doing, since she’d apparently had the practice room signed out for Specialist training.)

* * *

Sephiroth scowls up at the ceiling of his office, wondering what he’s supposed to do next. He thinks his Mother is in Nibelheim, but isn’t sure. He knows for sure She’s there when he burnt Nibelheim down, but he’s not certain She was actually there before he’d been sent to Nibelheim. 

And frankly he has no clue when he was even sent to Nibelheim. He’s fairly certain his Cloud was older than fifteen at that point, but not how much older. He may have mistimed his travel in hindsight...His scowl deepens. 

It’s not like he’s treating his puppet any differently than how he normally does…But that seemed to be the exact problem. Him treating his puppet the way he always does, just because of his age. Now he’s not even allowed _ near  _ his puppet. The Turks have been keeping too close an eye on him for that for the past week.

At least neither is Science, and he really wants to know why even thinking of the department infuriates him, when the vast majority of what he feels towards the other departments is disdain (and confusion in the case of Tuetsi, since didn’t the man run the WRO? Or did that not exist yet?). That was about as close as he got to memories, feelings triggered by certain people. 

The red haired man who was concerned over his interaction with Cloud for some reason inspired feels of betrayal and rage. The man who looked oddly like Zack and had the Buster Sword, a sense of grief and betrayal. Zackary, a sense of...alright he can understand why Zackary would inspire a sense of guilt, though he cannot fathom for the life of him why he keeps getting the urge to pat Zackary on the head. 

He remembers the satisfaction of killing President Shinra, and right now the only thing preventing a repeat of that is he can’t quite remember why. Right now it could also serve to upset his Cloud, since apparently the man is his grandfather, and Rufus his uncle. Which feels particularly odd, since the two are very close in age it seems. 

He scowl deepens. In hindsight maybe focusing on his puppet, and his rage and obsession towards Cloud had been a mistake. Now that he’s back in the past he’s beginning to sorely regret dismissing those memories as ‘unimportant’. It makes it hard to get close to Cloud. 

Especially when he can’t remember anything about the two men he’s in so many photos with. Oh, he’s looked up their files. The two most high ranking SOLDIERs after himself. Zackary came after them, and was the former apprentice of Angeal Hewley. The Buster Sword seems to have originally been Hewley’s weapon, then based on that then passed on to Zackary, then passed on to Cloud. It’s odd seeing it without any of the dinge marks or signs of use. 

It just feels wrong, but it had also been baffling to fight Cloud after his first death and the man no longer wielding the Buster Sword, but instead his bizarre (and mysteriously effective) fusion sword. He truly wonders, and regrets never asking, his Cloud about how and why he designed a weapon like that. It’s not the sort of weapon he’d ever seen in the past.

He at least _ thinks  _ it’s something he hasn’t seen in the past, but he really can’t trust his memories for anything beyond Cloud. 

His Cloud, who he needs to get access to.

His scowl turns into a thoughtful frown. 

Maybe if he waits another week they’ll let down their guard and he can retrieve his puppet, and then  _ they _ can make their way to find Mother.

And in the meantime he can figure out why certain individuals are invoking such strong emotional responses out of him...

* * *

“Ma, what do I do with a stalker?” Cloud asks, not even saying ‘hello’ or ‘how are you’ to her.

“I’m sorry Stormcloud, how do you deal with a  _ what _ ?” Claudia asks, gesturing to Vincent to keep quiet for the moment. They’d been discussing going through the rest of Hojo’s ‘research’ to prove what is bullshit and what isn’t; the vast majority unsurprisingly was more full of shit than a stable. 

“A stalker,” Cloud repeats. “I’m being stalked by Sephiroth.”

Claudia pinches the bridge of her nose, takes a deep breath, and makes a note to call her Da and ask him  _ what the fuck _ . 

“Stab him in the kidneys,” she advised. “I’m sure you still have your hunting knife?”

“Yeah.”

“Use that, if it’s good for skinning a Nibel dragon it’s definitely enough to do damage to a super soldier,” Claudia says. “What else has been going on besides you being stalked by Sephiroth?” Since a stabbing should be enough to get rid of him. 

And if not, she’ll need to be making a trip to Midgar…

“By the way, Ma, when were you going to tell me about my grandparents and uncles?” Cloud asks, voice now very dry.

“Oh, did Da actually get involved in the mess?” Claudia asks. 

“...You call President Shinra ‘Da’?”

“Well, he is my Da,” she says with a shrug that her son can’t even see. “So why not? Either way, he actually got involved in the situation?”

“I’m living in Rufus’s apartment and it’s been made public knowledge here in Midgar that I’m related to them. Apparently they found me being sexually harassed by Sephiroth too much.”

“I’m sorry, he’s not only stalking you but also sexually harassing you?” Claudia asks flatly. Oh she is _ so  _ making a call to her Da… “You’re underage even by Nibelheim standards, let alone Midgar.”

“I know. That’s why I’m now living in Rufus’s apartment, because they were worried I’d ‘vanish’ from the barracks otherwise,” Cloud explains. “I’m also now being personally apprenticed by one of the other First Class SOLDIERs, Genesis Rhapsodos, because of materia scores apparently. And because me being his apprentice is also safer, since pulling me out of Infantry pulls me out of Sephiroth’s command, and Genesis never listens to Sephiroth when he’s giving orders anyway.”

“You’ve always been good with materia,” Claudia says, already contemplating what she’ll need to gather for a trip to Midgar. “Will this Genesis Rhapsodos fight for you if it comes down to it?”

“Well the first time he witnessed Sephiroth harassing me he let me hide behind him and threatened Sephiroth with a fireball and reporting him to the Director of SOLDIER. His response after that was to basically hide me in his office, introduce me to Second Class SOLDIER Zack Fair who’s really nice, and set it up so I’d become his apprentice to be safer from Sephiroth.”

“Good enough,” Claudia says. “So I guess it sounds like you’re making friends? And meeting our relatives?”

“Zack is really, really nice. Genesis’s boyfriend Angeal is also really nice. He’s one of the other First Class SOLDIERs,” Cloud says. “It’s really surreal discovering I have uncles and a living grandparent.”

“Well, your Da is also back around in our lives,” Claudia says, getting the entertainment of watching Vincent choke on the water he’d just been drinking. “So when we arrive you’ll get to see him for the first time in a while.”

“My Da will be coming,” Cloud says slowly. 

“Yes, your Da,” Claudia repeats, smirking slightly. “You know, the man with black hair and red eyes in the old photos with me? Who we’ve joked looks a lot like a vampire?”

Cloud makes a choking noise and Claudia has to resist the urge to giggle. _ No, no laughing yet, wait till he hangs up _ , she reminds herself. 

“Oh,” Cloud says a bit faintly. “Wait, you’re coming to Midgar?”

“Well in light of you having a stalker, and how it’s becoming public knowledge we’re related to the Shinras it may be wiser for me to be in Midgar than not. And on top of that there’s definitely some people your Da needs to ‘chat with’ over certain things.”

“Okay,” Cloud says, and Claudia can feel a sense of satisfaction from her son’s tone of voice. He obviously knew _ exactly  _ who Vincent would be chatting with.

(A  _ pity  _ she couldn’t properly figure out where Crescent is, she’d love to have her own ‘chat’ with the scientist)

“Well, we’ll be seeing you soon Stormcloud,” Claudia says, smiling even though her son can’t see her. 

“See you soon.”

Once she hangs up she finally gives in to the urge to giggle. 

“Claudia what the hell?” Vincent demands.

“As I said, Cloud’s Da is completely out of my life and I wasn’t married to him anyway,” she says with a shrug. “This is an easy explanation for who you are and why you’re in my life.” 

“Yes, but you were also a grand total of sixteen years old when you were pregnant with Cloud. I’m presently fifty one to your thirty two. I would have been a thirty seven year old sleeping with a sixteen year old. I would be shocked if President Shinra doesn’t have me taken out back and shot,” Vincent says flatly. 

“I was seventeen when I got pregnant and gave birth to Cloud. ‘Sides, age of consent and age of marriage here is sixteen,” she says with another shrug. 

“The issue with Sephiroth is…”

“The issue with Sephiroth is that he’s a time traveling thirty six year old harassing what to the best of his knowledge is a fifteen year old. I doubt he knows Cloud went back in time too,” Claudia says, cutting him off. “Cloud’s underage by both Nibel and Midgar standards. Plus, easy enough to claim I lied that I was eighteen rather than seventeen when I realized you were an out of towner. Or that I found you injured, we got involved, and a baby Cloud was born nine months later.”

He rubs at his forehead and she grins, strolling over and straddling him. He’d been sitting at one of her kitchen seats, only in his pants. She’d stolen his cape, which is much warmer than expected. 

“Besides, it’s not like you actually had sex with a teenager. I didn’t even know you when I was pregnant with Cloud,” she reminds him. “My Da isn’t going to have you taken out back and shot anyway, because that would make me sad.”

“I wasn’t aware that the President gave much care to what makes other people sad. Or happy for that matter,” he adds. 

“Trust me, he does with me,” she says, grinning as Vincent’s hands go to her hips. “Now, I’m gonna call my Da so he can set up transportation for us to Midgar, and then we can go have more fun.”

* * *

Rupert’s PHS goes off and he has a very, very bad feeling. He looks at it and he recognizes that number. 

“Hello Claudia,” he says, walking over to his office window and staring out over Midgar’s smog covered skys. 

“Da, what the fuck?!” she snaps, the first words he’s heard out of her in the better part of fifteen years. “Someone sexually harassing my  _ son _ and stalking him is something you don’t call me about?!”

“I’m assuming Cloud called you?” He tries to keep the wince out of his voice. 

“Yes, he asked me for advice on how to handle the situation. I told him to stab them. He’s got his hunting knife and if it’s good enough for skinning a Nibel dragon then it’s good enough for doing damage to a super-soldier.”

Rupert hopes that Sephiroth doesn’t view that as flirting. With their luck he will. In hindsight, they probably should have socialized him better as a child rather than allow Hojo to raise him in the labs...Then they might have at least picked  _ up _ on this earlier.

~~ He chooses to ignore that if it had been anyone other than his grandson he probably wouldn’t have cared too much or done anything about it. ~~

“I also need transportation for me and his Da to come to Midgar,” Claudia adds. “Since apparently I can’t trust the company to not employ people who will harass my son.”

“In my defense, this is the first time Sephiroth has demonstrated these sort of inclinations,” Rupert says, knowing his daughter won’t actually find that as much of a defense.

“That’s a shit defense.”

“I am in fact aware of that,” he says dryly. “It’s the only one I have.”

“Great. Wonderful. I still don’t care, and want transportation to Midgar.”

He thinks. The closest and easiest transport would be from Rocket Town. As he recalls Cid Highwind had recently finished the airship the  _ Highwind _ . That should be fast enough to get Claudia and her husband to Midgar within a week. And an airship would be safer than a propeller plane or helicopter over the Nibel Mountains. 

“I can arrange something. Hopefully Cid Highwind, one of the company pilots and resident of Rocket Town can pick you up, and then fly you and your husband to Midgar.”

“Just give me a time and date and I’ll make sure Vincent and I are ready,” Claudia says. 

“Alright,” Rupert says, not really registering the name of her husband at first. “I’ll see you in a week or so ‘Dia.”

“Bye Da. Don’t pick another war with Wutai.”

Rupert softly snorts as he hears the dial tone. Of course that’s how she…

Wait. Hold on.  _ Vincent _ ? No, it has to be someone different. Valentine had been reported  _ dead _ over twenty years ago. But his daughter had always been weirdly cagey over her husband’s name…

No, no, he’s being ridiculous. Just because  _ Vincent  _ Valentine had been assigned a mission to Nibelheim over twenty years ago does not mean anything. Hel, Hojo had declared the man dead!

...Alright, that admittedly meant nothing, since Hojo.

Either way, Valentine would be much too old for his daughter and that is it.

Huh, he’s going to need to order the contractors to pick up speed for renovating the floor below Rufus’s if Claudia will be arriving so soon.

* * *

“Hello Cloud,” Sephiroth says, the sound is more of a purr. 

Genesis spins around, biting back a curse. Cloud had been just behind him, and he hadn’t heard Sephiroth approach. He thought that after two weeks the other man would fuck off, though admittedly Tseng had warned him Sephiroth could only be feigning disinterest at the moment, and could be a threat at any moment. Now Sephiroth is again too close to Cloud, violating his bubble of personal space, and the blond did not look happy. Sephiroth takes one step closer and…

Genesis blinks, wondering where the fuck Cloud had been hiding that knife, since he certainly can’t see a holster or a sheathe for it. And how sharp and sturdy it is, seeing as it had just gone through Sephiroth’s stomach guard, and he knows exactly how sturdy those things are.

“Stay the fuck away from me!” Cloud snarls, yanking his knife out of Sephiroth’s guts and stepping back quickly so he could hide behind Genesis. A wise response if you asked him.

Especially based on the grin on Sephiroth’s face, which is  _ not _ the normal response to being stabbed. 

Genesis feels his fire materia warm up, and he prepares to cast.

He is  _ not _ prepared for water to suddenly be dropped on Sephiroth’s head, drenching the silver haired man. 

“General, I would advise backing off. You’re now covered in water and any lightning spell is going to do a great deal of damage to you. Especially with the stab wound Strife just gave you,” Eanna says calmly, the slight Mideelan woman hidden behind Sephiroth’s back. She had to have either been walking down the hall towards one of the VR rooms, or following Sephiroth to keep an eye on him.

Either is equally possible, since the Materia Specialists had been enlisted to keep an eye on Sephiroth, since the man seemed to have forgotten they even  _ existed _ .

“I…” 

Sephiroth sneers as he looks over his shoulder, and Genesis hears the tell-tale crackle of lightning spells from behind Sephiroth and from behind  _ him _ . He looks over his shoulder and spots lightning dancing around Cloud’s fingers, waiting to cast properly.

“To reiterate, I would advise leaving,” Eanna says, still calm. “Or else I am casting the strongest lightning spell I know, and I suspect Strife is on the verge of doing the same.”

Sephiroth scowls but thankfully backs off, looking a bit like a drowned cat and stalking down the hallway. 

“Unnecessarily dramatic,” Eanna mutters, gesturing behind her so a Specialist Genesis vaguely recognizes follows after Sephiroth, along with an almost sheepish looking Turk. 

“Were you following him or on your way to the VR rooms?” Genesis asks. 

“Following him. I spotted him walking with no Turk or Specialist following him, so started following him myself and got Shotgun and Specialist Lucian to follow after me,” Eanna explains. “Also, hello again Strife. On your way to destroy a practice room?”

“We’ve only been destroying practice dummies,” Genesis protests. “Not entire rooms.” Lazard would kill him if he did that if for no other reason than expense. 

“You have literally practiced Gods be damned  _ Limit Breaks _ in the training rooms,” Eanna says flatly. 

“We had to pay for the repairs out of our paychecks,” Genesis says dryly. “So I’m going to assume if you could follow Sephiroth without a moment’s pause you aren’t doing anything right now?”

“I was on my way out of the building to buy flowers for my wife. There’s lately been a girl selling real flowers up here on the Plate,” Eanna explains. “I thought I’d go check it out, and if they really were real flowers, buy some for Iris.”

“Nice,” Genesis says. “If they are real, can you let me know? Angeal would be interested.”

“Will do,” Eanna says. She tilts her head thoughtfully. “By the way, I suspect if you two do wreck a VR training room, after you’ll get away with it, especially if you're, say, trying to see if Strife has any magic-based Limit Breaks, which could be helpful for dealing with the General’s... _ actions _ .”

(Surprisingly she’s right about them getting away with destroying a VR room, though they still aren’t sure if Cloud has any magic-based Limit Breaks)

* * *

It’s not exactly a secret the President is shit at keeping it in his pants. Cid knows there were goddamn bets on if  _ he’d _ turn out to be one of the President’s bastards. If you’re a blond and worked for Shinra, bets would start immediately. He thinks the only ones he’d known as being true in the end were Rufus (which, no shit) and Director Lazard (which also no shit, the man went from grunt to director in like, two years). Scarlet was  _ not  _ (which was a surprise), but apparently was somehow related to his ex-wife. 

And now he’s been ordered to pick up the President’s oldest kid, a blonde woman named Claudia Strife, and living in one of the most backwater parts of Gaia. How the fuck the President had even knocked up someone from Nibelheim is something Cid almost wants to know.  _ Almost _ . 

“Thank you,” Claudia Strife says, smiling at him as she steps into the airship. The dark haired man she’d introduced as her husband ‘Vincent’ nods at him. Both are holding bags.

She’s not really dressed the way he’d expected. He’d expected long skirts and a blouse, the same sort of outfits a lot of the other women he’d seen in the mountains wear before. Instead she’s dressed more like a Hunter, in dark brown leathers. Her eyes are a very bright blue, and she wears her blonde hair back in a messy bun. Her husband is wearing a more ‘civilian’ outfit, though both his hands are covered in gloves, and he’s wearing a leather jacket. He’s about as pale as Cid would imagine a Nibel Mountain resident to be, but has unusually bright red eyes to go along with black hair, and everything about his appearance radiates ‘vampire’.

“How long will the trip be?” Vincent Strife asks. 

“About two days. I’ll need to stop and refuel in both North Corel and Costa del Sol,” Cid says. “There’s beds in the back for you to use,” he adds. 

“Thank you,” Strife repeats, adjusting one of the two bags she’s carrying over her shoulder. “Where is the passenger specific seating? Since I doubt Vincent or I are going to want to stay in bed the entire time.”

Her husband makes a choking noise, and Cid suspects he’s blushing at the innuendo. 

By the smirk on her face, that’s  _ exactly _ the reaction she wanted to get out of them.

* * *

The past two weeks had been some of the most stressful in Rufus’s life, and that’s including last year’s situation with AVALANCHE. That had...not been one of his brighter moves in hindsight. Oh well, he still had his position as vice president and heir. He’ll just need to plan more carefully next time. But in the meantime he had to worry over things like Sephiroth’s harassment of Cloud, meeting his sister for the first time, and helping the Turks figure out why Hojo kept trying to schedule ‘appointments’ with Cloud. His Father had made it clear that Cloud is off limits...

For the moment though he stands on the roof, just off to his Father’s left with Cloud just off to his Father’s right, the three of them waiting with Tseng, Lazard and Rhapsodos. He suspects Lazard is annoyed at having to stand behind himself, their Father and Cloud. However, since their waiting Claudia’s arrival, Lazard’s position made sense. 

After all, he was fourth in line for the throne, so to say, behind himself, Claudia and Cloud. 

“I can see the helicopter,” Rhapsodos says, the First Class SOLDIER’s enhancements coming in handy.

Claudia had transferred from the airship strip just outside of Midgar to a helicopter along with her husband. The  _ Highwind _ was too big to fit safely on the roof. It had touched down a half an hour ago. They’d all come up on the roof fifteen minutes ago to wait. 

The helicopter is now within Rufus’s eyesight, and he resists the urge to shift or bounce on the balls of his feet. He’s  _ curious _ . He never really expected to meet Claudia, not even after Cloud arrived and started working as part of Infantry. From what he knows, his sister had never expressed any interest in the company,  or any interest in meeting him . 

After a few minutes more it lands on the roof, and it’s one of the executive helicopters, the sort he’d use to get to Kalm or somewhere else close by. The door opens and first a dark haired man hops out, two bags over his shoulder. He holds up a gloved hand, and a blonde woman takes it, allowing him to help her and her two bags out of the helicopter. 

For the first time in his entirely life, Rufus sees his oldest sibling in person. 

She’s as blonde as he and Cloud are, but her eyes, much like Cloud’s, are a much more vivid shade of blue. Her hair is almost messy, in a way that makes him suspect if she cut it short it would look like Cloud’s. 

“Hey Da,” she says, grinning, her husband’s hand going to her lower back once she’s on the ground. “Hey Stormcloud!”

“Hi Ma, hi Da,” Cloud says, and he can hear the grin in his nephew’s voice even if he can’t see it. 

“Hello Claudia,” his Father says and…

He just heard someone refer to his Father as ‘Da’. His Father, who had always insisted on the more formal address, not only allowed it, but responded to it.

“Hello sir,” Claudia’s husband says, and Rufus suddenly hears Tseng make a choking noise behind him. 

“Valentine?!” his Father asks incredulously. “I was told you were dead!”

“Hojo shot me, Lucrecia experimented on me, and Claudia later saved me,” ‘Valentine’ explains, a wry twist to his lips. 

“Alright…” Father says slowly. “Valentine you are…”

“My husband and Cloud’s father? Yeah,” Claudia interrupts. Amusement flashes on her face. “Again Strife genetics beat out almost everyone else’s.”

Wait,  _ Strife _ genetics? But he and Cloud look alike, and he assumed that was due to his Father’s appearance. Then again, he’d managed to hunt down a photo of Lazard’s mother, and she had looked similar to his mother. Maybe Skye Strife had looked similar? 

Now he’s almost curious if his Father had sought out women who looked like Skye Strife, or if that had been incidental. Based on the way they all looked like they could be full siblings, he’s going to assume it had been intentional. 

“I was more going to comment on the fact Valentine would have been in his late thirties when he would have met you,” Father says flatly. 

“Yeah, and the age of marriage in Nibelheim is sixteen,” Claudia retorts. “He was injured, I helped him, we fell for each other, and nine months later had a baby Cloud on our hands. And I wasn’t even sixteen anymore, I was seventeen,” she adds. 

_ “Claudia.” _

“Ma, I don’t need to hear the story again,” Cloud says with a groan. 

“I’ll explain it to you later Da, I want to talk to my son about everything that’s happened, and then speak with you and my two brothers who are standing on the roof,” Claudia says. 

“Alright. But we will be discussing this tonight,” Father says, voice stern. 

“If you’re going to yell at Vincent it’s sixteen years too late for that to do any good. By the way, where are Vincent and I staying?” Claudia asks. 

“The floor beneath Rufus’s. It’s been renovated for your’s, Valentine’s, and Cloud’s usage,” Father says, rubbing at his forehead. Huh. He hadn’t realized his Father had intended to move Cloud out of his apartment. 

“You gave me an entire floor?” Claudia asks, giving him an incredulous look. “Why?”

“Because I imagine you’ll be here for longer than a week, and this way you have space for yourself, Vincent and Cloud.”

“And a regular apartment wouldn’t have given us that space?” Claudia drawls. 

“You’re my daughter, you deserve a floor,” he says with a shrug, and Rufus can tell that from his Father’s perspective the conversation is over. 

“Alright Da, whatever you say,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Now show me where I need to go.”

Rufus ignores the odd look on Lazard’s face as they head back into the building proper, and Genesis quietly introducing himself to Claudia and Vincent. He suspects the look on Lazard’s face is a result of the ‘you’re my daughter, you deserve a floor’ comment. Lazard shared a floor with Tseng, not that Tseng was normally in his apartment to begin with. 

The floor below Rufus’s had always been empty. After finding out Lazard was his brother he’d assumed for a while that Lazard would get that floor, only to instead for him to be given the apartment that had been on the same floor as Tseng’s (well, it had been Veld’s at the time, but still). He’d noticed that not long after Cloud had moved into his apartment that renovation of that floor had started, which he at the time had assumed meant Cloud would be taking over that floor. 

Apparently his Father had guessed (correctly) that Claudia would be coming to Midgar and wanted the floor ready for her. 

* * *

“What the fuck Ma?!” Cloud demands once the three of them are alone. 

“Oh calm down, Vincent isn’t you’re real Da, and you know it,” Ma says, sitting down on one of the couches. She’s dressed in what Cloud knows is her hunting gear, and Cloud thinks the outfit that Vincent is wearing is a modified version of what he’d been wearing when they’d first met the Turk in Nibelheim, only sans the red cape and boots. “This was the easiest story to go with, that he’s your Da and my husband. No one in town can exactly deny it since it’s not like any of them have ever met your Da, and I can just claim Vincent spent all the time when not at the house hunting up further up in the mountains.”

“What do you mean, ‘I know it’?” Cloud says, giving Vincent a suspicious look. 

“I’m from the same future as you Cloud,” Vincent says, and that’s almost reassuring not being alone with Sephiroth being the only other time traveler. “Claudia awoke me from my rest, and I assisted her in destroying the Shinra mansion and burning Jenova.”

“What?” How, what…?

“I am not explaining this well, my apologies. Chaos assisted in sending me back to help aid you. I had only barely awaken when your mother opened my coffin and asked me, to quote, ‘Do you want to commit arson?’ The scheme to pretend I’m your father came after that.”

“And the arson I wanted to commit was dealing with Jenova, and destroying Hojo’s bullshit notes,” Ma adds. “Along with how burning the mansion down like that would also make the labs there inaccessible, on top of destroying the notes. It took us a couple days to figure out how to burn Jenova but not destroy the reactor, since that would have drawn attention.”

“How do you know anything about Jenova, or Hojo?” Cloud asks slowly. Because even if his Ma had come from the future, she’d died long before any of that had become public knowledge. 

“Stormcloud, why have I always been so insistent on our family’s devotion to the Old Gods?” Ma asks, answering his question with another of her own.

“Because we live in the Nibel Mountains, and ignoring the Gods is a good way to die?”

“Well that too.” Ma smiles faintly. “Any other thoughts on why?”

“Because otherwise I may find I enjoy Loveless and that would annoy you?” Cloud guesses, not mentioning that he’s found it enjoyable to listen to Genesis recite the play. 

“I hate that stupid play so much. Bunch of Minerva worshiping propaganda,” Ma mutters. 

“Then why?” Cloud asks. If he lets his Ma get going she’ll rant about what she doesn’t like about Loveless. Again. 

“Stormcloud, how do you think you got to the past? And how do you think I was able to know things like Vincent’s location, or that Jenova and the mansion needed to burn?” Ma asks. 

“In the first case Gaia did something and…” Cloud frowns. “When Gaia sent me to the past I felt something almost like you when it happened…” he says slowly. 

“What you felt, and what reminded you of me, and what I used to know what I do, is something called ‘seidr’. It’s a powerful form of non-materia magic that allows for fortune telling and shaping of the future. We are capable of using it due to our devotion to the Old Gods of the Nibel Mountains,” Ma explains. “You felt something like it when you sent yourself to the past is because you were doing it to ‘shape the future’. I felt a sort of ‘ripple’ when you did so, and used my own ability to foretell what was coming next. Hence Vincent, hence all the arson.”

“And that then culminated in you deciding to pretend Vincent is my Da and your husband so that if you ended up in Midgar you had a cover story of why Vincent’s around,” Cloud says, nodding since that made sense.

“Well, that and Vincent’s good in bed,” Ma says with a shrug, and Cloud chokes and sees Vincent facepalm. 

_ “Claudia.” _

“What, you are!”

_ “Claudia.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \---Told you guys you'd get an explanation for what the fuck is up with Claudia (and technically Cloud)  
> \---Eanna will claim to the end of her days she only dumped water on all of them to make sure the flaming training dummies were out  
> \---Sephiroth no  
> \---Nibel vengeance involves a lot of stabbing. See both canon and here for proof.  
> \---Claudia please stop fucking with people  
> \---Rupert Shinra's ears were ringing for the next hour  
> \---Let's be real it can't be a secret that Shinra Sr. is a manwhore. It can't be.  
> \---You ever think about how terrible Rufus's AVALANCHE plan actually was? Like it was bad.  
> \---The surreal moment of hearing your Father be referred to as 'Da' and not scolded for it  
> \---Lazard has (understandable) envy towards his siblings  
> \---Claudia please stop messing with your 'husband' and child
> 
> If anyone's interested, here's my [Discord](https://discord.gg/7pS5XsM)!  
> You can also find me on tumblr at If anyone's interested, here's my [tumblr](https://barid-bel-medar.tumblr.com)!

**Author's Note:**

> \---So anyone else remember how that whole 'hyperfixate on Cloud to stay aware in the Lifestream' meant he *lost* his Crisis Core memories? Since they weren't rage towards Cloud-relevant? aka something that is very much about to bite him in the ass.  
> \---Sephiroth is nearly defeated by a computer password  
> \---Also Sephiroth please don't be yourself to what looks like a fifteen year old Cloud, you don't even know he's a time traveler.   
> \---Genesis and Angeal are Not Amused  
> \---Lazard dislikes getting surprised by Rufus and is Incredibly Confused by all these revelations.  
> \---In which it should be realized that the Strifes are 'Strifes by Nature and Name' 
> 
> If anyone's interested, here's my [Discord](https://discord.gg/7pS5XsM)!  
> You can also find me on tumblr at If anyone's interested, here's my [tumblr](https://barid-bel-medar.tumblr.com)!


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